macrumors bot

According to the Memo, Jobs states that "Today is a historic day of sorts for our company." Apple used $300 million in cash to pay off the rest of their debt, and is now a debt-free company. A big turnaround from over $1 billion in debt in mid-1997. Also noted in the memo is that Apple currently has $4.8 billion in the bank at this time.

macrumors regular

this is great! While all the other computer companies struggle to turn a profit in the current market (Dell excluded), Apple is doing well. Looks like we may see another 20 years of Macintosh, even though Apple is perpetualy going out of business in the eyes of alot of people.

macrumors member

Administrator emeritus

Holy crap that's a lot of money. Nice to see a corporation, regardless of who it is, stand up for itself and get in the black. Bleeding red ink is not a good way to be. This should help squelch the "Apple Death Knell" as it's come to be known.

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502a

Heheh I wish I was debt-free -- between 3/4 of my car left to pay off, about $4K in credit card debt accumulated in college and my post-college summer non-employment period, and over $1K I owe my mom on my iBook G4 -- sometimes it really hits you. At least I don't have college loans, which means I am actually a bit _ahead_ of the game, compared to most other Americans my age with a college education. Kind of boggles the mind.

This is extremely positive news for Apple -- there is nothing held over this company's proverbial head. And with that much cash in the bank, they could literally weather a depressionary period, if things ever came to that. That's good for me, as I have decided to make Macintosh Technology the thrust of my career path for the time being.

macrumors regular

Originally posted by carletonmusic it will be interesting to see how investors look at this. Stock prices for Apple have never been all that great.

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debt to equity ratio is just one of many factors that impact the value of stock. while its true that this can't hurt, that doesn't imply that it will help. in order to see a surge in stock value apple will need to hold on to the strong position they have in online music (possibly movie) distribution, maybe even aquire a record label. granted if they did that the beatles would be sure to have a negative impact on their stock.

bottom line: apple stock is not a major preformer because apple represents a very successful but niche company.

macrumors 65816

I have to agree, people are (hopefully) going to be willing to buy more apple stock now that they are out of debt. I can see this raising the value of the stock overall, though I wouldn't go so far as to say that this will make the price will start jumping higher and higher now.

macrumors regular

This has nice symbolic value, but has nothing do to with whether Apple is or was bleeding red ink or not. 300 million worth of debt is not a big deal when you've got 4-5 billion in the bank.

This also has absolutely zero impact on Apple's ability to deliver product, or spend more on R&D, or anything. That is why Jobs said a historic day "of sorts." So let's not get too excited here.

But it is nice anyway.

[aside: I wonder if and when Apple is going to do something significant with its huge cash cache. I know they are very protective of it, and that's fine, but at some point you'd think they could use it to their advantage, beyond just generating investment income.]

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